Nearly seven decades after the Holocaust, young soccer fans in Germany have become targets of neo-Nazis who preach the hatred of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. Prime targets of anti-Semitism on the soccer field are...

Saturday, Feb 16, 2013 at 7:41 AM

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Nearly seven decades after the Holocaust, young soccer fans in Germany have become targets of neo-Nazis who preach the hatred of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. Prime targets of anti-Semitism on the soccer field are the Makkabi teams, Jewish athletic clubs located in 15 German cities. “Again and again we see neo-Nazi presence in [sports] fan clubs and my office asks that action be taken against them,” said Winfriede Schreiber, head of the Brandenburg branch of the German government’s intelligence service. Making matters worse, neo-Nazis now blend in with everyone else. “Gone are the jackboots and black leather jackets that used to make it easy to expose them. Now they blend into the local population,” Schreiber continued. She also said the neo-Nazis subscribe to Hitler’s views and extol his one-time deputy, Rudolf Hess. The problem of antisemitism is not limited to Germany. In England, fans of London-based Tottenham Hotspur -- which boasts a strong Jewish following -- have been subjected to anti-Semitic abuse for many years. In November, supporters of West Ham United "hissed on several occasions, mocking the mass execution of Jews during the Second World War," the U.K.'s Telegraph newspaper reported. "While the hissing, shamefully, is nothing new, Tottenham fans were also subjected to a chant of 'Adolf Hitler, he's coming for you.'"
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